


The Research Assistant

by ArthurTheAndroid (CaptainCrozier)



Category: Masters of Sex
Genre: F/M, Ice Play, Michael Sheen - Freeform, Nipple Licking, Oral Sex, Tiny bit of Angst, Vaginal Sex, doing it for science, early awkward bill, its basically smut, post S1ep6, set somehwere in S1ep7, slightly sassy virginia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:07:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22834522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainCrozier/pseuds/ArthurTheAndroid
Summary: Bill and Virginia are officially doing it for science, but Virginia is growing increasingly frustrated with Bill's lack of confidence and tendency to hide behind The Work. She just wants him to enjoy things a bit more.Post S1 Ep 6 (the one where Bill feels up her boobs for science) and set somewhere in the middle of the next episode between the Awkward Sex at the start and the Orgasmic Sex at the end
Relationships: Virginia Johnson/William Masters
Comments: 18
Kudos: 59





	The Research Assistant

_‘Orgasming having your breasts touched, I’d need to see proof of that.’_

_‘We’re scientists, let’s see.’_

She didn’t in the end. Something to do with the tremble in Bill’s fingers and the dampness of his palm combined with the terrified look in his eyes. His actual touch was gentle, the pressure of his thumb against her nipple just right, but he was clearly out of practice and out of his comfort zone. Virginia had nudged him closer, slipped a hand under the starched white of his lab coat and tried to encourage him to relax, but the proximity had only resulted in her being more aware of his shaking and the way he struggled to control each breath. She’d felt sorry for him, stopped his hands where they were and watched the tiniest flicker of humiliation at his failure cross his face, before she suggested with her own fingers that they proceed to something different, hooking her nails behind the buttons of his shirt and deftly making her way down his soft belly to his pants.

She wanted him inside her, she wanted him to let go. There was always something burning behind Bill’s green eyes that he kept a check on, and she wanted to see it. Perhaps if she could make him… but no, his awkwardness continued even when buried within her, unable to meet her eyes for long enough to find her reassurance, his movements like a metronome as he forced himself to hold back, but not for long enough. He came quietly, shamefully and turned his head away and she found herself desperate to offer him comfort and yet unsure if it was her place to do so. They separated wordlessly and spent an uncomfortable few minutes redressing before he suggested she write up their conclusions and suppositions.

_Supposition: William Masters lacks confidence in bed._

It took three more sessions to get him to try a new position. Three more sessions to chip away at his male pride and reveal to him a little of what really worked, but they were still so out of sync that it felt forced at times, Virginia reminding herself to relax as her body chased its wish and immediately losing all arousal, and Bill catching and stopping himself whenever he closed his eyes and drifted on a wave. Bringing himself back to the job in hand, focusing on his goal instead of God Forbid enjoying any of it.

He enjoyed the science of course. And she could detect the first signs of a repair job to his ego too after she sat astride him for the first time, after he pinned her knees to her chest, after the discovery of the ‘reclining lotus.’ Humming to himself after the session, making notes from print outs on the timing and the number of her climaxes. He was proud of both the work and of their more recent successes in the exam room, but he still would not relax when in the thick of it, one eye always on a clock, a manual, a stray wire that needed fixing. He was committed to understanding female sexual response and in particular Virginia’s for the benefit of both the Project and her, but he had failed to get in touch with his own needs.

It annoyed her. Bill had promoted her to Research Assistant at the start of all this and frankly, his reticence and shyness was preventing her own line of investigation. That was something he could understand, right? Something he could appreciate?

She gave him one more session to get it together, and then she went on the attack.

Arrive too late to the lab and Bill would already be swaddled in his blue robe, sticking tape to his head. Too early and she would have to wait impatiently for him to finish up his notes and laboriously remove his layers, folding each neatly into a little pile. It was torture to witness, but as removing those layers herself was part of the plan she plumped for early to catch him fully dressed.

Virginia arrived to find him in his suspenders and shirt sleeves, adjusting a wooden chair by the exam table and checking that the cables were long enough to reach. He took a step back and considered for a moment before fixing its angle slightly, his eyes flicking between the seat and the EEG machine behind his wire glasses. She paused behind him, her arms wrapped around her supplies.

‘Nice… chair, she said. ‘Is that from the waiting room? We are going to have to wipe that down afterwards.’

He didn’t laugh, a sure sign he was anxious. Without turning he gestured to it awkwardly, scratched the back of his neck. ‘I thought we might…’

‘Chair sex, sure,’ Virginia agreed, ‘But there’s something I wanted to address first. There’s an area of our research which I think is rather neglected.’

He looked over his shoulder owlishly, ‘Oh? Well that is only to be expected, it’s um… early days. But of course, ‘he added hurriedly, ‘if there’s something I should be… I mean we should be… if there’s an area which you think would be of benefit to um… examine then naturally we ought to discuss it.’

He was blushing. He was a damn sex researcher and he was blushing. How could this man pitch for funding for this project with absolute authority, propose papers, speak at conferences, make plans to write a _book_ but he couldn’t look her in the eye as she made suggestions about the things they ought to do to one another.

‘Nipple orgasm,’ she said. Bill stared at her. ‘Orgasm through touching the breast only and in particular, the nipple.’

‘I thought we already um… established…’ he finally turned to face her and his eyes dropped to her chest briefly before he hauled them up again and very deliberately looked away.

‘Our first run at it didn’t succeed,’ she said, dumping her supplies on the exam table. Bill’s eyes skittered over them and he frowned.

‘Thermos flask?’ he asked.

‘But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t run the trial again, it’s an important area to cover, the secondary sexual characteristics as erogenous zones with orgasmic potential.’

‘Um… well yes,’ he was still looking distractedly at the thermos, ‘And there is every possibility that on repeat investigation…’

‘So I thought we would start with you,’ Virginia said, ‘The male response.’

‘The… the _male_ response?’ he blinked.

‘Yes.

‘But the questionnaires, they indicated breast induced orgasm was a predominantly female phenomenon.’

‘Predominantly.’

‘Surely then our focus should be on that? Given that men don’t have breasts?’

‘Men have rudimentary breasts, Bill. Which one of us is the MD here? Aren’t you curious? You’re a scientist. The male nipple, while in many respects redundant, could still potentially be associated with more intense states of arousal and orgasm.’

He looked as though he was considering it. He had his Considering Expression on. This was a good start. Now just, peak his curiosity a bit more..

‘Have you ever orgasmed from nipple stimulation alone?’ she asked him directly.

‘I… um… not that I recall,’ he confessed.

Poor Bill. She was increasingly convinced he had only ever orgasmed from stilted missionary and furtive masturbation.

‘So let’s try it,’ Virginia said, sweeping past him to the screens at the side of the room. ‘Let’s put it on tonight’s agenda, and if we don’t get results, we can do the chair sex instead.’ She slung her cardigan over the top of the frame and began unbuttoning her blouse. Beyond the partition she could picture Bill hovering by the chair trying to psych himself up. Increasingly in these sessions it was Virginia who led the way and Bill who very much acquiesced to her plans for each evening, but until now there had never been a plan quite as focused on his response in lieu of hers.

‘Well, if you insist…’ he started. Virginia emerged from the screen in her robe ready to go. ‘Oh, sorry, I’ll change…’

‘No,’ she said, and his hands stopped at his collar, just about to undo his bowtie.

‘I think I know where we went wrong last time,’ she said backing him up against the exam table.

‘Oh?’ he sat down heavily.

‘Too focused, on the breast itself, I mean. Nipple induced orgasm happens during both female masturbation and foreplay with a partner, but the focus isn’t all on the breast. There’s other forms of touching, stroking. Stomach, thighs, neck and so on. We need to examine this not as an piece of anatomy leading to climax but as part of a wider experience. Non genital stimulation leading to orgasm.’

‘That’s another area entirely,’ Bill argued. ‘And not very scientific. There are too many variables. We are either testing the theory around the nipple or the generalised theory of non genital stimulation. We would have to pay particular attention to the distribution of technique, what proportion of touch was nipplecentric compared to other…’ he stopped when he saw her expression. ‘You have to do these things properly, Virginia,’ he said exasperated, but right back in his comfort zone again. Science. How to do science correctly. Taking his assistants preliminary idea and bashing it into a respectable hypothesis. Virginia smiled to herself. He was going to be fine.

‘Why don’t we just run the experiment and debate the findings later,’ she said.

‘The parameters have to be set first, Virginia, the hypothesis…’ he said.

She raised an eyebrow.

‘Just let me see fi I can make you come without touching your penis,’ she replied a little forcefully. Bill swallowed and looked away non plussed. Damn it maybe she had played this wrong. And then he pursed his lips and took off his glasses, folding them carefully and placing them by the EKG.

‘Fine,’ he said raising a hand in mock defeat. ‘Where would you like to begin?’

Virginia pressed forward again and he opened his thighs to fit her snugly between. She looked down at his face and caught the barest hint of a smile he was trying to hide.

‘Let’s start with taking this off,’ she said winding her fingers around and through the bowtie, tugging and sliding it from his collar, ‘While you tell me what you like.’

‘What I like?’

She ignored the urge to call him an idiot. ‘You know, what you like, other than having your penis touched. Give me a starting point.’

He chewed on his lip a moment, his head tipped back so he could watch her, and as she undid the top button of his collar she felt the weight of his large, eloquent eyes on her face. She wondered if he even realised how exposed he looked at those moments, how hopeful, how entranced. It made her feel powerful but equally concerned. Bill Masters was nowhere near as tough as he made out, and she had seen that all too clearly recently, after Catherine. In typical Bill fashion he had tried to stop her seeing, but she had felt it all the same, his heartbreak, his vulnerability.

‘Just let yourself be vulnerable,’ she said, ‘Tell me what you need.’

He laughed nervously, looked away as she undid another button, dragged her nails through the soft hair on his chest.

‘It’s OK to have preferences and needs, Bill,’ she said.

‘I know that,’ he said too quickly.

Another button. She slid her hands in under the warm cotton, beneath the shirt and the undershirt, felt the curve of his shoulders. Moved the suspenders away so that they dropped by his sides. Bill drew a breath and held it. Gracelessly disentangled his arms from the braces.

Virginia moved one hand up his neck while the other undid more of the shirt.

‘What about, this,’ she said leaning closer, speaking very deliberately into his ear so that her breath might heat his skin. She felt his thighs tighten slight around her and let her index finger run the length of the taut ridge of muscle between sternum and jaw, watching him close his eyes for just a second before he forced them open. He smoothed his palms over his knees, one knee jittering.

‘Bill, try and relax? Huh?’

He gave a curt nod. Virginia stepped back a pace.

‘Do you want to get into your robe?’ she asked. He looked up at her gratefully and she tipped her head to the screen.

Virginia sat on the exam table and waited. Occasionally seeing a neatly folded item of clothing was draped over the frame.

‘Bill does foreplay feature for you? I mean as a man?’ she asked as he undressed.

‘Of course,’ he said guardedly.

‘I’m being serious. If it wasn’t for the pressure of pleasing your partner would you do it at all, or just skip to the main event.’

‘Men are programmed to skip to the main event, Virginia.’ His undershirt appeared, white and folded.

‘Because they separate emotional need from physical?’ she hypothesised.

‘For some of them maybe. For others…’

‘For others?’

‘Deriving sexual pleasure is seen as a shameful activity. Throughout their teens and early adulthood men have needed to um… see to that particular need quickly and in secret, without fanfare. Reach orgasm in as efficient manner as possible.’

‘Doesn’t sound much fun,’

‘Fun?’ his breath sounded ragged as he bent behind the screen and his pants appeared over the frame. He was probably wrestling with the suspenders on his socks. Virginia smirked.

‘It _is_ supposed to be fun, Bill. It’s supposed to be relaxing. You don’t ever just… you know.. take your time? Stop thinking about it?’

‘Doing what? Intercourse? That would be rather rude of me, don’t you think?’

‘Masturbation, then?’

‘It’s not something I um…’

‘Come on Bill we all do it.’

‘Well of course I do it, but… I’m a married man Virginia, privacy for that sort of thing isn’t exactly…’

‘So what you’re saying is its never about relaxation or enjoyment for you its either a marital duty or a pressing and shameful need.’

He appeared in his blue robe, his hair slightly ruffled and his stance a little awkward.

‘There are a lot of expectations, I suppose,’ he said, ‘Women… I mean…the female partner… they.. it’s all tied up with romantic ideals, or the longing for baby, or the insistence that their husband demonstrate that he loves them….’

Virginia raised an eyebrow. ‘It shouldn’t be a chore, Bill,’ she commented.

‘I’m speaking in general terms,’ he said irritably.

‘Yes, of course.’

‘I’m just saying it can turn into something that… isn’t enjoyable and that one might just want to be over and done with.’

She felt her heart tugging at her and immediately tried to squash down its sympathetic response. Out of his suits and ties and polished shoes, Bill had a disarmingly soft and endearing shape to him. A little wide through the hips for his shoulders, a little soft about his belly. His hair had a tendency to stick up at odd angles after they were finished and if he did let his face slip into repose, if their brief intimacy chased away his worries for a moment, she would see the tell tale signs of kindness etched into the delicate skin around his eyes. At one point in his life Bill Masters had smiled and laughed and done so easily, and the spectre of his happiness now haunted his face.

Virginia stood up and dropped her robe. ‘Let’s try again,’ she said encouraging him forward, ‘Hopefully you don’t just want this over and done with,’ she added awkwardly.

‘’What? No! Of course not, Virginia, this…’

‘Shut up, Bill it’s ok, take your robe off and lie down.’

He swallowed again but did as he was told.

‘I brought some things,’ Virginia said unscrewing the thermos he had spotted earlier.

‘I noticed,’ Bill plucked a long white feather from the pile, ‘What’s in the flask?’

Virginia rattled it and he looked genuinely baffled.

‘Ice,’ she said.

‘Ice?’

Quickly she poured some of the freezing melt from the flask into her palm and flicked it at his chest with her fingertips.

‘Ah! Virginia, for God’s…’ he raised his arms defensively, ‘That’s freezing. What in God’s name are you trying to… Oh…’

She had pinned him against the plain white sheet, straddled him as usual, but instead of moving quickly to join their bodies she leaned forward, traced a line between each cold wet spot upon his chest with the flat of her tongue. Bill stopped his protest immediately and she felt him tense, but she continued on her way where gravity and melted ice had trickled down the side of his belly. She lapped it up and returned to the fine fuzz below his naval, pushed her nose against his skin and breathed deep as she opened her mouth hot on his abdomen. Her breasts pushed against him and she felt him twitch against her nipple. Virginia gave a cursory grind back and forth so that he might be caught between her cleavage and was rewarded with him growing full and hard.

‘No direct genital stimulation’ she heard him say. Virginia looked up to catch his eye and he gave her a playful look she hadn’t seen before.

‘Yes, boss,’ she said, and moved up again.

Enough of the ice from her refrigerator and survived its day in the flask for her purpose. She grabbed a cube and applied it deftly to one nipple while Bill squirmed in protest beneath her. The sound of his suddenly breathless laugh spurred her on and after a moment to allow the flesh to peak and harden she applied her mouth again, flicking her tongue over and around the nub and finishing with a soft suckle. His laughter turned to a sigh and with her thumb located the opposite of his chest, massaging his pectoral muscle in firm sweeps, catching the nipple there with her thumb, rubbing in circles. She lowered her mouth again and sucked harder. Felt him grind up against her at the contact.

Virginia released him long enough to give him further instructions. ‘Tell me how you like it, what you want.’ She sucked and laved. Tweaked the other nipple under her hand. Bill sucked in a breath. ‘Harder?’ she asked, and heard movement on the pillow. She glanced up to find him with his eyes tightly closed and lip bitten.

‘Harder?’ she said again and watched him nod, embarrassed. She tweaked again, pulling and rotating just a little and felt a rumble in his chest. Without removing her eyes from his face she drew one nipple through her teeth.

‘Oh!’ his hips came up under her and she pressed down more firmly on his chest, repeated the action with her mouth with a suck and flicker of her tongue. ‘Ah! Yes!’ A shot of arousal coursed through her at the sound, at the sight of the tension in his neck, not anxiety now but the press of his muscles flexing with pleasure. His hands scrabbled in the sheets for a second before finding her shoulders and she let herself be guided as she wound her way with lips and fingertips over the breadth of his chest. Unperceptively he moved her down until she was kissing the base of his ribs, nuzzling into the dip below his sternum, the soft and vulnerable places she suspected had not been touched in years. She ran a palm over one thigh and he jerked again, his cock leaking now against her skin and she could hear his breathing picking up, feel the thud of his heart. Bill’s hand came to her hair and tangled there, his thumb lighting on her cheekbone with a soft caress.

‘Virginia,’ his tone at least an octave deeper than usual, it lent his voice a gravel she was unused to and her reply came out half moaned into his hip. Without realising she had worked her way to the crease between his thigh and body, licked and nipped a trail there while one hand came between his legs. The tip of her thumb ran the crease of his balls once. ‘ _Virginia_ ,’ he said.

She could smell him, deep and musky, pressed her nose into his skin.

‘The rules,’ he said.

‘Fuck the rules, Bill,’ she snapped, ‘For once fuck the damn rules and just enjoy it.’

His stomach tensed and she felt the hand in her hair withdraw a little. Damn. Dammit. She would scare him back into his box if she did this.

‘Bill, I’m sorry. I… just…. I want you to…’ she looked up at him to find him looking straight back down. There was a flush to his cheeks she usually only saw in the moments before his climax, one he tried to hide by burying his face against her shoulder or turning away entirely. Now he watched her with dark pupils, his lips parted, hot breath coming fast.

‘I just want you to enjoy it,’ she finished weakly. He drew his bottom lip through his teeth once. Nodded with an expression that was part awe and part desperate need.

‘Do it,’ he said. ‘Please.’

She held his eye and lowered her mouth until she could feel the damp heat from his cock on her chin.

‘Please,’ he said again. She traced the tip of her tongue along the underside and Bill’s fingers seized in her hair. His free hand grasped at the sheets beneath him and she felt a tremble begin in his thighs.

‘Please,’ he whispered.

Virginia finally covered him with her lips, dipped low on her first pass, sucked back gently with her tongue pressed to his flesh. Bill’s head tipped backwards, his weight propped on his elbows so he might better see the view, the muscles in his neck and throat gave way and he called out harshly, the tone of his voice like electric in Virginia’s blood.

‘ _Ah_ …. Virginia,’ he was panting, sounding more frantic than she had encountered before, and the tidal surge of his hips beneath her forced her to bear down on his body. She wrapped a hand about his cock to steady him, tasted salt. ‘Jesus… Virginia… I… I can’t.. I shouldn’t….’

A glance told her that he was biting down, trying to rein himself back in or regain some semblance of control. His face was the picture of internal conflict, his body pulling firmly in one direction while his sense of shame took him in the other. In a sudden movement he tugged her back and Virginia came away from him with a soft wet sound. Bill’s hand flew to his mouth where he all but bit down on his fist.

‘Bill, please!’ she said, ‘Please you’re almost... it’s OK Bill, I want to!’

He shook his head, eyes closed.

‘This wasn’t… this isn’t what we agreed…’ he tried and she could almost hear him fighting with his reasoning. This wasn’t the agreed hypothesis, this wasn’t the plan, it had to fit the project, it had to fit the cursory permissions he set himself or it was no longer about science it was about basic human need and vulnerability and desire, and Lord knew the great Bill Masters couldn’t just be human.

‘We deviated, it’s OK,’ she said, ‘It’s OK, it’s just another line of enquiry we needed to look at, the data is still valuable, we’ll just….’

‘No, not like this…’ he said.

‘Bill!’

‘Please, Virginia.’

He reached down and hooked his arms under her shoulders, all but dragged and spun her so she was laid across the exam table, crawled up and over her body. She could feel the wet shape of his cock against her thigh, the insistent twitch of it, the heaviness of his breathing at her neck. They had deviated way off course but this was a permissible variant of their already agreed research. He couldn’t allow himself a selfish pleasure with no scientific cause, but he could allow himself this, as it fitted their agreement, it resembled what they had done before. Virginia opened her legs and he made a deep sound of relief, fumbling between them and pushing inside.

It wasn’t until he did that, she realised how wet she was, how tense, how needy, how much teasing and sucking and tasting him had done for her own arousal, how obvious it must have been to him that she needed some kind of relief. He hitched up her knees and pushed down and forward, desperate now, the weight of him solid against her body, pinning her until she felt as though she was part of him, somehow consumed and owned and taken and oh he had been right, this was better, this was so much better.

‘Plateau,’ he said.

‘Plateau,’ Virginia gasped under his combined weight and thrust. ‘Oh… _God_ …’

Bill’s breath was coming harsher, she felt the point of his nose seek refuge beneath her ear, the sweat from his brow lick her skin, the stickiness of his chest on hers and the obscene slap of flesh. And still she felt him holding something back, his grunts of pleasure sticking in his throat. She could hear a whine of frustration building in him and knew that just a moment later he would either release or be so consumed with shame he stopped completely, worried he could not satisfy her, afraid he was too fast, hell bent on seeing to her needs.

Oh no, you don’t mister, you are going to finish it, with or without me this time.

‘Go on,’ she said clearly, ‘That’s it, go on, there…. Like that…. Bill… yes… do it.’ She tipped her hips up, clasped his buttocks in her hands and felt the force of his muscles working beneath his skin, ‘Do it, you’re going to make me come, you’re going to…’

It was a shout. A sudden shout, that ripped from him as he surged forward and all breath left his lungs. Virginia felt him spill and seize and shudder, heard him cry a second time, more weakly, felt the strength go out his arms. She clasped him hard, one hand in his messy hair and fought with the urge she had to kiss his temple, kiss his cheek, his neck, his lips.

But that would be crossing a line too far. And they had already crossed a few this evening.

She lay still and studied the ceiling, a pulse of arousal where he joined her still, but one that would wait out the moment as he needed. Bill’s breathing was slowing, growing steady, and then he made to move, politely, as he always did, and clean things up. They should begin their notes and readings, a protocol religiously observed after each concluded act of intercourse, but Virginia held him firm. He snuffled against her in half hearted protest and then went limp again. So far so good. She let her mind wander as he recovered.

_Supposition: William Masters lacks confidence in bed._

_Hypothesis: Encouraging William Masters to acknowledge his own needs will also increase his overall confidence and thereby his general performance._

_Results of Experiment: Appear positive so far. Too early to say for sure._

_Further proposal:_

‘Is everything, OK?’ Bill asked, interrupting her train of thought with his endearingly drowsy tones.

_Further proposal: That chair position he was up for earlier still needs testing._

She smirked. ‘Just lay there for a minute, get your strength back,’ Virginia said, patting down his hair, ‘We aren’t done yet.’


End file.
